May 07, 2013

I recently sat down with FullScreen to discuss digital native talent during NewFronts week. Justin Danko, VP of Partnerships, Jonah Minton, SVP of Business Development and George Strompolis, CEO of FullScreen were kind enough to provide insight into their approach to the world of YouTube.

We are always looking for people with great talent and creative star-power. But just as important in the digital world is whether this person knows how to powerfully connect with their audience. We look for entertainers who not only know how to emotionally capture their audience through their content, but also know how to socially engage them off-screen. These are the next-generation content creators that end up building passionate, actively engaged audiences.

What can aspiring talent do to build up their influence and get noticed?

Be consistent in your programming; frequently push out content. Stay connected with your audience and in the wider YouTube community through social media and interactive events. Collaborate with other influential creators and cross-promote each other’s content. Join a community, such as the Fullscreen network, to get connected with like-minded creators, access exclusive YouTube tools and gain knowledge of best practices in building a channel optimized for YouTube.

What are best practices for marketers who are interested in building out a YouTube influencer strategy with their content?

YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world – consumers are flocking to this platform looking for videos, and the viewing behavior is extremely active. Because it’s a massive social network, you need to tap into an audience even before your video goes live. You can’t just post and pray. You need people to interact with and evangelize your content on your behalf.

First, it’s important that marketers understand what their specific key objectives are for their campaign. Saying things like “I want buzz” won’t cut it. Are you looking for Facebook shares? Likes? YouTube views? Is there a specific action you want the consumer to take? Identify what a home run would be and then create a specific plan focused on reaching it. Then produce smart content that provides value to the consumer, whether it’s information or entertainment or another variable. The more “shareability” the video has, the more quickly and aggressively it will trend.

What types of tools does Fullscreen offer to help gain traction in this space?

To help brands leverage our enormous network of YouTube influencers at scale, we’ve created Gorilla. Gorilla campaigns are direct editorial integrations scaled across a demographically-targeted slice of Fullscreen’s massive creator network. Brands control talking points and creative assets integrated into the influencer’s content which run through Fullscreen’s quality control process. Gorilla campaigns are proven to drive some of the highest levels of ROI and engagement on the YouTube platform, averaging 10-20% CTR.

April 24, 2013

I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at the Outbrain Content Conversations meetup series around Content in the age of Native. It was a fantastic panel discussion. I've been meaning to share out some of my notes that I pulled together. Hope these are helpful and please shoot over any questions on Twitter! I'm @Fasciano

How do you define content
marketing in relation to native advertising?

Content
marketing and native advertising are similar and often overlapping efforts, in
that they both strive to deliver value to the consumer at a moment of relevance
– most often as a way to increase engagement and impact. Where they differ is that Content marketing
should be about a holistic publishing strategy that covers creation,
distribution and context planning. Native
Advertising is the deployment of content as advertising in a manner that mimics
consumer behavior specific to platforms or sites to foster a more seamless and
relevant integration with experience.

So, put and end to the debate!! Should
brands become publishers?

For
the most part yes, the modern media landscape demands it. Fairly soon earned impressions in places like
a newsfeed are going to surpass paid impressions. Without a content strategy, brands are going
to get left behind in this new reality.
Furthermore, as consumers continue to shift to mobile devices, content
is going to increasingly become the prevailing UX. Brands will need content to stay relevant in
a mobile and social driven media landscape.

With brands becoming publishers,
as agencies, what role should the agency be playing in the Content Marketing
sphere?

As
Noah Elkin of eMarketer puts it, “Content alone is no longer sufficient… brands
need a combination of content and context to reach their audience.” There is
value in content on it’s own but context brings immediacy that leads consumers
to engage. Agencies are best equipped to
run content marketing efforts for brands simply because the challenge goes
beyond creation; context around content is becoming the priority and you have
to understand consumers, behaviors and marketing objectives to surround content
with context that matters. That said, the best agencies understand the value of working closely with partners to co-create high-quality assets and programs that fit within a marketing plan and content strategy.

What is authentic in Content
Marketing and Native Advertising? Where do you see the value for your clients?

The truth is, most consumers don't really care about brands. They care about themselves and their needs. What’s authentic about content marketing is when a brand delivers meaningful value and relevance to the consumer. This can be information when it’s needed. Entertainment when it resonates. Support of a dialogue when it matters. Content is currency, which means brands benefit when people think it's valuable enough in related to their specific needs to share.

Primarily
engagement, earned media and social CRM.
All three of these goals / benefits, if we see strong numbers are an
indicator that the brand has successfully delivered value to the consumer. If this happens, advocacy, consideration and
loyalty are supported.

Are there inherent dangers in
Native Advertising?

Yes,
Native attempts to blur the lines between brand content and editorial content –
placing them on seamless, and almost equal grounds. Publishers and brands need to be transparent
about elevating the expectations of a brand experience when driving opt-in or else consumers will feel misled.
It has to feel relevant, value – or else the impact is lost – and
potential friction can arise.

Industry defining moment!!! Does
it start with PAID, OWNED or EARNED???

Marketers
often instinctually refer to all of this as “Paid Owned Earned”– but I think
it’s worth challenging the assumption that Paid always comes first. Overall, the application of paid in ecosystem
marketing is shifting from audience accumulation to newsfeed engagement. And while it doesn’t necessarily come
first, it’s still just as important.
These days, the process often starts with owned, driving earned sharing,
and finally getting amplified in newsfeeds with paid. That said, while Paid might not come first,
it’s becoming more and more essential to integrate paid media with owned and
earned marketing efforts. The strategic
justification in this shift being that earned impressions (often of content and
native ads) arguably have the highest impact – so let’s give that scale.

Does one create awareness and the
other create demand? If so, can you speak to the implications of that?

Demand
most often will already exist, either advertently or in a nascent manner. Strong consumer insights should drive the
type of content that will resonate with the consumer through their journey. Google trends and social listening are great tools to source insights and opportunities where demand for content already exists.

Good
content by its very nature should address demand by providing value and for
that reason get shared to raise awareness. The really good content, creates it's own demand by getting shared. Native Advertising can do a great job of accelerating the awareness
around great content and positioning great content closer to sharing behaviors, thus creating even more demand.

November 12, 2012

I work at a fantastic advertising agency, Digitas which has a unique commitment to charity. This year for the first time, a new program called Hearts in Action recruited employees to share their involvement in charity work for a chance to win donations for their charity.

I'm proud to say that my presentation, included below in SlideShare was able to net $2,000 for donation to Team Heart. My hope is that this money will be able to be used for screening a forthcoming 20 min documentary in various cities - which I produced to broaden the organization's fundraising efforts. Please stay tuned for the release of the documentary!

30% of hospitalizations in Rwanda are related to heart disease, and much of that is Rheumatic. Team Heart's mission is to address and prevent Rheumatic Heart Disease in Rwanda. To learn more, please view the presentation. For more information about the organization Team Heart, visit TeamHeart.org

September 11, 2012

I recently met with Kelly Day, CEO of Blip to hear her perspective of where Blip's future is headed, and what the state of the state might be in the the web content space.

The most interesting point that Kelly kept returning to was this: "Building audiences takes time, multiple seasons in fact."

This message got me thinking... During the Digital Content NewFronts this spring we saw a number of serious investments and announcements around web content and web series, most notably YouTube's $300 million investment in the launch of 100 original channels. There's no doubt that many new shows will thrive and others will fail. From Ms. Day's perspective it's great that there's movement in the space - but - and this is a big one - she sees many of these new productions in a very precarious position. Each of the YouTube 100 original channels is funded a few million dollars, which in reality can be spent very quickly when you start consider all of the needs: creative development, production, talent and... drum roll please... promotion and audience development.

That, coupled by dependencies on YouTube's technology and sales teams puts these companies in a situation where Google essentially has all of the leverage.

The productions that survive will be those who figure out the quickest how to assemble meaningful audiences with significant footprints. That's what drives revenue and sustainability. That requires both a creative vision as well as an understanding of how Google technology supports content distribution, engagement, and subscription. It requires modern day producers who understand what type of content engages and spreads most effective, and how paid media opportunities, such as YouTube's TrueView platform can drive efficient exposure to their content. Audience development is the name of the game.

If you're an advertiser you're looking for audiences - or - meaningful creative integrations at affordable prices. The latter is a more forward looking approach. Still, most sponsorship conversations start with audiences - and new web tv players need to be relentless in their pursuit of new viewers - through creativity and technology.

April 25, 2012

My colleague Taylor Davidson (@tdavidson) recently wrote a very thought provoking post around the idea that "context first" is a useful way to view and make sense of the innovation occurring in digital and mobile media. I agree with this notion and built upon it by adding that from the perspective of a digital marketer it should also be viewed as "behavior first." Taylor asked that I write a few sentences to elaborate so that he could share. I've drafted and here it is below. Would love to hear what everyone thinks in the comments! I've also included an interesting visual that seems relevant:

Digital Strategy is the process of specifying an organization’s unmet needs, business goals, and activation vision in the digital space. As with most marketing, a vision is built around consumer insights – but in digital media, because people go online often to actively complete tasks ranging from communication to research to transactions – the ecosystem is behavioral by its very nature. For this reason, all the data that we have access to should be viewed through the lens of behavior. We often talk about context, relevancy, targeting, etc. Most of this at it’s core becomes actionable to a marketer when you look at it through the lens of behavior and how to influence or aide that behavior in a meaningful way that helps the organization or brand in the end.

February 21, 2012

Head over to YouTube.com where BMW has launched a video contest with a home page takeover. The contest is fun, creative, and the prize is pretty fantastic – win a BMW 3 Series! I worked on the digital strategy behind this effort and have to say it’s really exciting to see your recommendations become a reality.

The effort is part of the larger DESIR3 campaign that is focused on raising awareness of the all new BMW 3 Series. For this particular work, the original challenge was to develop a recommendation around how to fully leverage a large media buy and amplify the media value beyond the impression and click. What we did was create a program that lives longer than one single day (during the homepage takeover).

How it works: Show BMW how much you DESIR3 the new 3 Series in 5.9 seconds or less and it's yours - but you have to be as quick as the 3 - which hits 60mph in 5.9 seconds.

One of the driving activation insights behind this effort is that collective branding via user generated content (UGC) can help aspirational drivers feel an emotional connection to the brand. And further, co-creation generates creative assets that spread! I posted my video last Friday and it already has over 1000 views (see bottom of post). If you start to project that engagement out with hundreds or thousands of submissions you inevitably see a nice amount of earned media value.

As a final thought - whenever working in UGC, it’s important to offer some creative structure to participants – or else it just becomes a free for all that loses site of the campaign and brand message. The structure we provided was focusing on an emotional brand value and placing limits on the submission to 5.9 seconds. "Less is more," right? The cumulative effect – beyond media exposure and awareness – is that BMW’s DESIR3 means something completely different after this partnership with consumers has taken place. In today's modern media landscape, brands need to show that willingness to cede some control to their enthusiasts.

If you don’t have time today, the contest will live on after our take over media. The amount of time you have to enter is, of course, 3 weeks.

February 17, 2012

I’ve just returned from a trip out to Rwanda with the medical non-profit organization, Team Heart. Their mission is to address and prevent Rheumatic Heart Disease in Rwanda and East Africa, which is a significant problem to the tune of causing 30% of all hospitalizations. Their strategy is to administer penicillin for prevention and operate on those who need heart surgery.

When I first met Team Heart I realized that their mission was multi-layered and that the language of medicine is not easily familiar to those outside of the medical world. I produced this video to help them explain their mission in an accessible and easily digestible manner.

For my most recent trip with Team Heart, my goal was to create a video that they can use for their fundraising efforts. Strategically, my aim for this work was not just to help people understand the mission, but also to build more of an emotional connection between the story and prospective donors.

Every messaging strategy mixes logic with emotion but I think when it comes to giving your money for good, the logic needs to hit a certain baseline threshold and then the emotion needs to be the ultimate selling point. Generally inspiration will always beat out urgency of the mission. There are lots of urgent causes – but inspiration is ultimately going to be what make people feel good about giving and telling their friends. For Sr. Cardiac Surgeon, Dr. Chip Bolman, the patients inspire him.

Short term, I’ve been sharing photos on Tumblr and Picasa (hit me up on G+)… Mid term I plan to deliver a 5-10 minute video for fundraisers… As for long term? Dave Wilson, Chairman of Team Heart tells me I should think Sundance - but we’ll see about that!

Of course non profits do not need to hire a photographer / videographer to produce great content. Simply starting a blog, Tumblr or YouTube page can allow you to share great content frequently enough to keep everyone engaged with the mission. The key is to keep it simple and let the story tell itself. And as always, the more visual the better! Make sure to check out Team Heart's Blog.

Doc Maarten’s recently showcased their social media prowess by hosting the #FIRSTANDFOREVER event at Frontrunner Gallery in TriBeCa, NY. The event featured a new media installation of projected video, instagrams printed to canvas, DJ, custom bourbon drinks and the new line of Doc Maartens shoes. A fine assortment of downtown regulars and bloggers were in attendance and spirits were high.

Among all the great accouterments and creative uses of the Frontrunner space, the Instagrams printed to canvas felt particularly innovative. The prints showcased the spirit of Doc Maartens and the evolving beauty of mobile photography. Now I need to make my own! Great for bringing some life to that undersized New York City apartment!

Inspired by the mobile photo installation, I captured Instagram portraits of the event attendees.

September 29, 2011

Cause Marketing has established itself in the mainstream of marketing. Not only are lots of brands doing it, but lots of customers are seeking it. The research confirms what we've all observed, with majority of consumers responding positively, and the year-over-year trend being noticeably positive:

I worked with Frontrunner Magazine to launch the meetup series, ‘CrossLink’ on June 6 with the topic ‘Cause Marketing for Social Brands’. I quickly presented on trends in this emerging space (featured in the embedded presentation.) Edward Symes followed by screening 15 minutes of his recent documentary, ‘Los Medicos’ which follows the story of volunteer doctors in Guatemala. The seminar concluded with a panel discussion that also featured Tim Fogarty, Chief Strategy Officer for Organic Spread Media.

Team Heart is a non profit medical organization that aims to address rheumatic heart disease in Rwanda. The approach is two fold. First, the organization works to prevent new cases through screening and medical treament. For those who have advanced cases, surgeons operate on the heart to restore the individuals back to strength.

I met Ceeya and Chip Bollman and was instantly drawn to their story in its own right, but also because of my past experiences working in Rwanda. Their effort is one of remarkable heroism and they cannot do it alone. They've turned to digital and social media to spread the word and raise additional funding.

I worked with Team Heart to produce these video interviews, which are meant to more fully explain the organization's mission and approach. While the video is basic, it is my hope that we can raise additional funding to support a trip out their to capture additional media, that can more fully tell this story.

During my last trip to Rwanda, I gained a great deal of understanding about how telling human stories can establish an emotional connection to organizations and individuals. I hope that someday we will be telling the whole story of Team Heart from the field.